By many criteria, lamb is superior to other types of meat. It contains 30% more iron than pork and beef. Also in its composition there is lecithin, which helps to normalize the metabolism and cholesterol level in the blood. The peoples of the Caucasus consider this meat a dietary product and use it in the preparation of their national dishes.
Despite all the benefits of lamb, its taste remains unpleasant for many. To prepare a delicious dish, you need to know exactly how to cook and how much meat is mutton? What needs to be done to avoid bad smell when cooking? We will talk about all this in detail in our article.
Cooking features
Many cooks are scared away by the specific smell of lamb. That is why when choosing meat for broth or pilaf, they choose pork, beef or chicken. The following recommendations will help you choose the right and deliciously cook lamb meat:
- An unpleasant aroma is covered in a large amount of fat. To avoid this, fat from a piece should be cut off whenever possible.
- Choose a shoulder blade or neck for the lamb broth, and the back of the carcass for stewing meat.
- The dark red meat of the female usually gives a less persistent flavor. Male meat is slightly lighter and has a brighter odor.
- If you soak a piece for 6 hours or more before cooking, with a periodic change of water every 2 hours, you can be sure that there will be no smell.
- To prepare a delicious dish, you need to know exactly how much lamb is cooked. Properly brewed, it turns out to be soft and tender, with a pleasant aroma and a refined, unique taste.
How and how much to cook the lamb broth on the bone?
To prepare the broth on the bones, it is necessary to take small pieces of lamb no larger than 5 cm in size. But before that, it is recommended to soak the meat in cold water for about 2 hours and only after that start cutting. Then the pieces are washed thoroughly and placed in a pan with cold water. Cook lamb broth over low heat from start to finish.
As water boils, foam will form on its surface, which must be removed periodically. Thanks to this simple method, the broth will be transparent. After the water boils, add the onion head, black peppercorns, bay leaf to the pan with meat. Over low heat, the broth will boil until cooked. But how much mutton is cooked depends on how young or old the animal was. So, the lamb meat is cooked no more than 1.5 hours, the young lamb is cooked for 2-2.5 hours, and the meat of an adult male will be ready in 3.5-4 hours.
When the broth is ready, the meat is removed from it and transferred to a plate. The liquid itself is filtered and used to make soup, for example, shurpa. Directly cut the mutton into slices and, when serving, put the dishes in each bowl with soup.
How to cook mutton for pilaf
If fat is recommended to be removed for broth, then for pilaf it is almost an obligatory ingredient. In principle, it is also cut off, and then melted in a cauldron until the formation of cracklings. Then they are cleaned in a separate plate.
After that, put small pieces of meat into the melted fat and fry them on all sides. Then 2 cups of water are added to the cauldron. Now you need to find out how much lamb is cooked for pilaf. The cooking time in the cauldron is 40 minutes, but only until the onions and carrots are laid. In general, the cooking time of this type of meat in pilaf is about 2 hours.
How to cook lamb in a slow cooker?
The whole advantage of cooking lamb in a slow cooker is that the meat can be taken even frozen. For this, a piece of pulp (1 kg) is washed well, cut into small pieces, vegetables are added to taste, for example, onions and carrots, and poured with water (2 cm higher than meat).
Next, you need to select the correct mode. Here you can use one of two options: “Soup” or “Stew”. In the first case, you will get a delicious, rich lamb broth, and in the second - a fragrant, soft and tender stew. Cooking time for fresh pulp is 2.5 hours, and frozen cooks for 1 hour longer.
Now you will know how much lamb is cooked and how to make a delicious dish out of it.